"Hold the span. There's one more boat!"
Kali turned toward the voice. A soldier sat against a broken parapet, one hand closed around a copper disc. His armor had corroded at the joints. Beneath the rim of his helm, all that remained of his face were a few teeth and the smooth bone of his jaw.
The disc crackled in his hand.
"Hold the span. There's one more boat."
Beyond him stretched a bridge wide enough for twenty wagons to travel abreast. It crossed an expanse of open sky, linking the fragment of land beneath her feet to a distant harbor.
Ships lay overturned along its quays. Some were ordinary sailing vessels, while others had great bronze wings folded against their hulls. A flight of steps descended from the lowest dock into nothing.
There were hundreds of such islands. Some bore mountains sheared through their roots, others the remnants of cities. Far below them hung the two halves of a pale moon, its dark interior exposed like the flesh of a split fruit.
